21491

The Beatles: Vintage Signed UK Prototype Poster The Beatles and Frank Ifield On Stage Press Proofs a

Currency:USD Category:Memorabilia / Music Memorabilia Start Price:1.00 USD Estimated At:8,000.00 - 12,000.00 USD
The Beatles: Vintage Signed UK Prototype Poster The Beatles and Frank Ifield On Stage Press Proofs a
<B>The Beatles and Frank Ifield On Stage Press Proofs and Color Key (1964)</B></I> It's hard to believe it now, but the Beatles -- generally considered the world's most popular Rock/Pop music act of all time -- found it hard to translate their early success back home in England over to America. Capitol Records was the American subsidiary to EMI, the British label that released the Beatles material, and had first rights to the new group. Failure to break earlier U. K. acts like Cliff Richards in the States caused Capitol to initially pass on the group, so Vee-Jay, a small Chicago-based label, picked up that option. At first, it seemed Capitol was right, as the original Vee-Jay Beatle singles failed to chart. Finally bowing to EMI's pressure, Capitol could resist no more, and signed the band. Seemingly overnight, the sounds of "She Loves You" and "I Want To Hold Your Hand" filled American airwaves, and Beatlemania was in full swing across the country. Vee-Jay, knowing their option on the Moptops would soon expire, released several albums of the early material in a number of different formats, all in an attempt to cash in; the rarest of them all was this reissue of their "Jolly What!" album, pairing four songs from the Beatles with eight by British crooner Frank Ifield, now presented with a nice painted portrait of John, Paul, George, and Ringo on the cover. This lot contains some extremely rare "press proof" material for that front cover, including a beautiful set of color keys (four film positive sheets that seen together form a single full-color image -- this would look great framed), plus two press proof sheets (one in full color, the other printed in only blue and yellow). Also included is the original set of four film negatives, one each for red (magenta), blue (cyan), yellow, and black, as well as the original manila envelope they were stored in. This material is incredibly rare, especially considering the fact Vee-Jay knew they would not be able to reuse them for future pressings. The film items are in Excellent condition; the two paper proofs are in VG, with a fold line through the full-color print.